Awakening: An Introduction to the History of Eastern Thought engages students with anecdotes, primary and secondary sources, an accessible writing style, and a clear historical approach. The text focuses on India, China, and Japan, while showing the relationships that exist between Eastern and Western traditions. Patrick Bresnan consistently links the past to the present, so students may see that Eastern traditions, however ancient their origins, are living traditions and relevant to modern times.

God made your heart for love, joy, peace, and wholeness. But pastors say that more than 90% of their congregations struggle with unforgiveness - and unforgiveness can make us forget what we were made for. What if the most pervasive sin of our day is invisible, hidden deep inside our hearts? What if it affects every aspect of our lives and relationships so quietly and insidiously that most of us miss it altogether? Bruce Wilkinson believes unforgiveness is that sin. Through the teachings of Jesus, The Freedom Factor reveals the link between our suffering and our unforgiveness. But it also shows how to forgive - for real and forever. The story doesn't have to end with the pain of our wounds. Whatever happened to us happened. But the God who made your heart has shown a way past the wounds, back to the life and love that we were made for - a path toward freedom.

Ruth Haley Barton's award-winning, practical introduction to the spiritual practice of silence and solitude is an invitation to you to journey into the real presence of God and hear and his voice. Much of the Christian faith is about words - preaching, teaching, talking with others. But the hectic demands and noise of daily modern life can drown out God's words, and keep us from fully meeting him. Taking the story of Elijah the prophet as inspiration and example, Invitation to Solitude and Silence explores the power of quietness and stillness in connecting with God. Filled with practical exercises that draw on Ruth's own experience, it encourages and challenges us to rethink how we see silence and solitude and to use them to invite God deeper into our lives. Invitation to Solitude and Silence is ideal for anyone looking for spiritual disciplines to help them connect more fully with God and practices to aid their spiritual formation. Ruth's gentle wisdom will expand your idea of what prayer can be, and help you find time to rest and renew your faith so that your relationship with God is strengthened. Helpful and hopeful, this book is a reminder that God does not push himself where he is not wanted but waits for us to respond from the depths of our desire. Will you say yes?

Nadat Ockert en Michele Potgieter getroud is, het hulle hul tasse gepak en vertrek Oekraïne toe, nie vir hulle wittebrood nie, maar om daar te werk onder die mense wat onlangs bevry is van agter die ystergordyn.

Dit is egter ’n groot ontnugtering vir Michele in die begin – dit is yskoud in die winter en snikwarm in die somer. Die meeste huise het net buitetoilette en daar is min verskeidenheid in basiese kruideniersware. Die mense is baie vriendelik en hulle word meestal met oop arms verwelkom. Maar alles is nie altyd maklik nie, daar is ’n noue ontkoming met die mafia, agtervolging deur die KGB en verraad van binne die gemeente. Dan sterf Ockert tydens die Covid 19-pandemie tydens ’n besoek aan Suid-Afrika. Michele moet besluit of sy teruggaan Oekraïne toe, waar ’n oorlog dreig en of sy in Suid-Afrika by haar mense en haar kinders bly.

Dit is ’n aangrypende verhaal oor liefde: liefde vir God, vir die mense van die Oekraïne, maar ook die liefde tussen Michele, Ockert en hul kinders.

Do you like the direction your decisions are taking you?

Most of us make choices we regret—choices that have moved our lives in a direction we don't want to go. But you have the ability to break the cycle of bad decisions and form better habits.

Drawing on Scripture, story, and the latest psychological research into human behavior, pastor Craig Groeschel reveals the power of "pre-deciding"—the key to consistently making choices that will lead you out of a downward spiral and into the joy and freedom God has for you.

With thought-provoking exercises and questions for reflection, Think Ahead will help you:

• Understand the science behind your decision-making habits.
• Overcome decision fatigue and debilitating fears.
• Diminish the role of emotions in decision-making.
• See how your small choices shape the kind of person you become.

Pastor Craig Groeschel knows from personal experience and as a counselor to others what it's like to feel stuck. Think Ahead will help you define and put into action the seven life-defining pre-decisions you can make today that will help you live the life you want to have tomorrow.

'Son of Man' is practically the only self-designation employed by Jesus himself in the gospels, but is used in such a way that no hint is left of any particular theological significance. Still, during the first many centuries of the church, the expression as it was reused was given content, first literally as signifying Christ's human nature. Later 'Son of Man' was thought to be a christological title in its own right. Today, many scholars are inclined to think that, in an original Aramaic of an historical Jesus, it was little more than a rhetorical circumlocution, referring to the one speaking. Mogens Muller's 'The Expression 'Son of Man' and the Development of Christology: A History of Interpretation' is the first study of the 'Son of Man' trope, which traces the history of interpretation from the Apostolic Fathers to the present, concluding that the various interpretations of this phrase reflect little more than the various doctrinal assumptions held by its interpreters over centuries.

Is there an answer, a guide, a blueprint that reveals what you need to know to survive, to stand, and to prevail in view of what’s coming in the days ahead? Has it been revealed to us in a sign from ancient mystery now playing out in modern times before our eyes?

After seven explosive New York Times Bestsellers, Jonathan Cahn now releases his newest blockbuster - The Josiah Manifesto: The Ancient Mystery & Guide for the End-Times - as mind-blowing as all his bestsellers - and with something different: the Blueprint, the Answer - the Manifesto!

The Josiah Manifesto opens up the stunning mysteries that lie behind the dramatic events of recent times that have changed our world – and the message hidden within them with regard to what lies ahead.

• Could an ancient array of mysteries from the Middle East have converged on Washington DC in a single hour to change the history of America?
• Could a 3000-year-old calendar of appointed days provide the secret to the most dramatic year of our lives – even ordaining a plague, a national lockdown, days of fire, and the changing of the Supreme Court?
• Could an ancient pagan temple, an ominous prayer, and a mysterious template lie behind the event that overtook Capitol Hill and shook the nation?
• Could an enigmatic ancient king reveal the secret of a modern American president?
• Could an ordinance given in the middle of a desert 3000 years ago have determined the rise and fall of a Latin American dictator?
• What does the future hold? Is America heading for calamity? Is the world? And what do you need to know to survive, to stand, and prevail in the days ahead?
• Is there hope? Have we been given a last chance? Is it possible to change history? And have we been given a blueprint for what we need to know for the days ahead – even the ‘end-times’?

The Josiah Manifesto will take you on a prophetic journey from a Caribbean Island to the Washington D.C. to the ancient Valley of Hinnom to the Supreme Court to a desert mountain to an ancient middle eastern temple to the gates of America - to uncover an ancient puzzle that lies behind the events that have altered our lives - Including … The Island of Mysteries – The House of Fallen Children – The Heavenly Court – The Child of the Nile – The Agents of Heaven on Earth – The Stranger in the Living Room – The Mystery of Days … And Much, Much More!

And could these mysteries give you the key to what you need to know to prevail in the days to come – even a guide to the end times? It will all be revealed in The Josiah Manifesto: The Ancient Mystery & Guide for the End-Times!

The book you can’t afford not to read!

We grow more spiritually by doing it wrong than by doing it right In Falling Upward, Fr Richard Rohr offers a new understanding of one of life's most profound mysteries: how our failing can be the foundation for our ongoing spiritual growth. Drawing on the wisdom from time-honoured myths, heroic poems, great thinkers and sacred religious texts, the author explores the two halves of life to show that those who have fallen, failed, or 'gone down' are the only ones who understand 'up'. The heartbreaks, disappointments and loves of the first half of life are actually stepping stones to the spiritual joys that the second half has in store for us. 'I thank God for Richard Rohr's sage-like presence in our culture: I honestly don't know where I'd be without it.' Brian Draper 'Richard Rohr at his vintage best: prophetic, pastoral, practical.' Cynthia Bourgeault 'A voyage into the mystery and beauty of healthy spiritual maturity.' Mehmet Oz, MD, host of the Dr Oz Show

This volume takes as its object not religion as such but a set of interventions that raised to scholarly consciousness some of the intellectual problems and political stakes in the representation of religion. Its point of departure is Wilfred Cantwell Smith's early critique of European and North American productions of 'religion' as an object of knowledge. Selections take up something of the form and consequences of Smith's argument as the task of making explicit the historically determined status of religion's use as a category for describing and differentiating humans, their behaviors and social practices. Thematic links are made between classic interventions in Religious Studies and related fields of critical inquiry (including essays by Walter Benjamin, Roland Barthes, Joan Wallach Scott, and Jonathan Z. Smith) and their contemporary interlocutors. Framed innovatively by the themes of cultural and scholarly mapping, the critique of texts and textuality, and sexualized, racialized, and gendered constructions of the body, with each section prefaced by original contributions from leading scholars in the field (e.g. Amy Hollywood and Burton Mack), Readings in the Theory of Religion will prove indispensable to students and scholars in every sub-field of critical and cultural studies of religion.

Poverty and superstition go hand in hand, When you have nothing, you cling to whatever gives you hope. Tracy King was raised in a house of contradictions. Her home was happy and creative but it was marked by debt, by her father's alcoholism and her mother's agoraphobia. When her father died at the hands of a local teenage gang on the streets of their Midlands council estate, superstition gave way to a deeper and more dysfunctional reliance on the born-again Christian church to which Tracy and her family belonged. In the chaos of loss, the paranormal became paranoia. In a bid to find definitive answers, Tracy followed one belief system after another until, accidentally, she stumbled across a book by scientist Carl Sagan. It opened the door to scientific thinking. Ultimately, it taught her to think for herself. And it was only when she applied the tools of critical thinking to this exploration of her past that she uncovered a very different kind of story. Learning to Think is a memoir about belief. It's about poverty, religion and superstition, grief and healing. But most of all, it's about the liberating power of a scientific view of the world.

Bibles make great gifts!

This leather-look NIV Gift and Award Bible is economically priced so you can share the life-changing Word of God with more people. Perfect for special events or acts of kindness, this gift Bible is arranged in two columns with words of Jesus in red, along with a presentation page for gift-giving, maps, and other Bible helps.

The NIV Gift and Award Bible features Zondervan's exclusive Comfort Print® typeface, making it easy for everyone to read. Expertly designed for the New International Version (NIV) text, Comfort Print delivers a smooth reading experience that complements the most widely read contemporary-English Bible translation.

Features:

• Full text of the accurate, readable, and clear New International Version (NIV)
• List of the miracles and parables of Jesus
• Full-color maps
• Words of Jesus in red
• Two-column format
• Exclusive Zondervan NIV Comfort Print typeface
• 7.7-point print size

Waarom glo mense dat die sterre en planete se posisies jou toekoms kan bepaal, of dat gesprekke met dooies moontlik is? Dis die soort vrae wat George Claassen in hierdie boek stel. George Claassen is dosent in wetenskapjoernalistiek aan die Universiteit Stellenbosch en die skrywer van die By-rubriek "Kwakoskoop" waarin hy vreesloos alle vorme van kwaksalwery onder die soeklig plaas. Hierdie teks bestaan uit vyftig hoofstukke waarin ’n verskeidenheid onderwerpe aangeroer word, van evolusie en die kartering van die menslike genoom tot supersnaarteorie en sieninge oor die ontstaan van die heelal.

Marriage has not always meant just one man and one woman. For much of human history, over much of the globe, the most common alternative was polygamy: marriage involving more than one spouse. Polygamy, or plural marriage, has long been an accepted form of union in human societies, involving people living on every continent. However, polygamy has come to symbolize a problematic, even "barbaric," form of marriage that is often labeled as "backwards," less modern and progressive, embodying the oppression of women by men. In Polygamy: A Very Short Introduction, Sarah M. S. Pearsall explores what plural marriages reveal about the inner workings of marriage and describes the controversies surrounding it. The book emphasizes the diversity of historical polygamist societies, from the Shi'ite Muslims and Wendat men who practiced short-term marriages to the Mixteca, Maori, Inca, Algonquin, and Marta indigenous people of North America and the Pacific Islands, as well as medieval Irish kings, rulers of the Kingdom of Buganda in east Africa, and residents of the Ottoman Empire. Pearsall also explains the Old Testament origins of polygamy in the book of Genesis, making note of vocal Protestant defenders of the practice such as Martin Luther and John Milton, and the divides within Christianity that led to Joseph Smith's establishment of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormonism) and the Mormons' fight throughout the 19th-century under his successor Brigham Young's leadership to freely practice plural marriage. Polygamy: A Very Short Introduction looks at how polygamous domestic and sexual relationships have influenced larger dynamics of power, gender, rank, race, and religion in societies all over the world, while also attempting to untangle the paradox of female constraint and liberty for women who advocated for polygamy, arguing that plural marriage offered security and stability rather than restraint for women. In balancing an explanation of the many complexities and misunderstandings of plural marriage, the book reveals how polygamy continues to have an influence on society today.

Study seven miracles in the first 12 chapters of John that reveal the identity and divinity of Jesus.

The Gospel of John is one of four books that describes the life of Jesus. John’s gospel is organized in two big divisions, the book of the signs and the book of the suffering servant.

The first part introduces us to Jesus through the lens of 7 key miracles or signs that Jesus does to disclose His identity and prove His divinity. These signs are meant to show us who Jesus is and what He is like. They disclose to us what He cares about and point us back to God.

For all of us following Jesus or maybe those who are just looking into Jesus, these signs will point us on a path to the Savior.

Session Topics:

• Follow Me
• I Am He
• I Am Working Also
• Believe in the One He Sent
• I Am the Light of the World
• I Am the Resurrection and the Life
• I Will Draw All People to Myself